Fox Bait
by WynterSky
Summary: <html><head></head>Neji helps Hinata get Naruto to notice her.</html>


[Just a little something while I was stuck on Turning Points and In Which. Naruto is not mine, of course.]

Hinata sighed dreamily, but very quietly, because she didn't want Naruto to know that she was watching him train. It was wonderful to watch him; while he was perhaps not the most graceful of shinobi, every movement was powerful and well-supported. Ever since he had returned from his training trip, his improvement had been clear, and here she was, still as pathetic as ever. All she could do was watch as Naruto sparred with Sakura and wish that she was the one to be that close to him...she smiled wistfully and leaned back against the trunk of the tree she was hiding in. The warm sun felt so nice as she closed her eyes blissfully.

Suddenly, she jerked awake as the tree began shaking. Had Naruto noticed her, or Sakura decided to use her particular tree for a weapon?

"What are you doing there?"

Hinata looked down. "N-neji-nii-san?" She could feel herself blushing in embarrassment, and ducked back into the leaves so that he wouldn't see.

"Come on, get down," Neji called. "It's almost dinnertime, and no one could find you anywhere. Hiashi-sama was about to register a B-rank mission to rescue you. We need to get back and tell him you haven't been kidnapped again."

Gingerly, Hinata dropped out of the tree, but her cramped muscles made her land awkwardly and she would have fallen if Neji hadn't caught her arm. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"F-fine," she stammered, hoping he wouldn't notice how she was blushing. She must have fallen asleep and not even noticed when Naruto left—and she had been hoping to follow him to Ichiraku's tonight. At this rate, he would never know how dedicated she was!

...

"You need to stop stalking Naruto, you know," Neji said after dinner that night.

"S-stalking!" Hinata protested. "I'm not s-stalking him! I'm just observing...discreetly...and waiting for him to..."

"To what?" Neji interrupted. "To notice you?"

"W-well, I suppose so, yes."

Neji sighed, brushing a stray lock of hair out of his face. "Hinata, expecting Naruto to _notice_ you is like...I don't know, expecting the Hokage Mountain to turn blue or something!"

"Naruto's not stupid!" Hinata defended.

"I didn't say that. He's just a bit oblivious. You need to actually _start a conversation_ with him, for once. Have you ever tried to talk to him?"

"I, um, showed him my paper in the Chuunin exams..."

"Anything else?" Neji probed.

"N-no."

"Would you talk to him, if you had the chance?"

"I don't know..." Hinata stiffened her resolve. "Y-yes, I would."

"Okay, so here's what you'll do—"

...

That had been last night, and Hinata was about to give up and go home. She'd been sitting here since sundown, and the moon was high overhead with no sign of Naruto. But if she gave up now, she'd be too ashamed to even _look at Naruto again, so she remained, even though it was beginning to get cold. What was in the mysterious box Neji had given her, anyway? All he had said was that if she just found a nice corner and sat on top of the box, Naruto was sure to turn up eventually. If Shino had been the one to give it to her, she would have assumed that it was pheromone-exuding bugs, but what would Neji have to attract Naruto?_

Sighing, she flopped back on the box. Whatever was in it, it was filling it completely, as nothing gave with her weight. Maybe she could take just a peek—

Just then, a pair of familiar bright blue eyes appeared in front of her. "Hello, Hinata!"

"Eep!" Hinata gasped, nearly falling off the box. Neji's mysterious plot had worked! Warmth bloomed over her cheeks, and she could feel herself getting light-headed, but she couldn't faint now!

"Um, are you okay?" Naruto asked, leaning even closer and causing Hinata to blush even more furiously.

"I...I...y-y-yes, I'm fine!" Hinata finally managed to stutter. "H-how are you?"

"Great! I've been learning all sorts of cool jutsus and a few weeks ago Sakura and I even managed to beat Kakashi! But, I guess you might have heard about that already," he added, wilting a bit

Hinata had indeed; the story had been all over the village less than eight hours after the battle ended. When a training field was demolished that thoroughly, people tended to become very inquisitive. "That's w-wonderful," she said, all the same.

Naruto perked up immediately. "I know! Soon maybe I'll be good enough to be Hokage!"

For a little while after that, they just sat on the box, back to back. Hinata was in seventy-seventh heaven, and trying desperately not to pass out from sheer ecstasy. Naruto was actually paying attention to her!

Finally, Naruto shifted away, and Hinata barely kept herself from falling backwards. "So...what's in the box?" Naruto asked.

"Um...I'm n-not sure," Hinata admitted.

"You're on a street corner in the middle of the night sitting on top a cardboard box, and you don't even know what's _in_ the box?"

Hinata concentrated intently on pressing the tips of her index fingers together. "W-well, I th-th-thought that—"

Before she could finish whatever it was that she was going to say (even she wasn't sure), Naruto had grabbed her around the waist and deposited her on the sidewalk. "Let's find out!" he cried, attacking the strings holding the box closed.

"I don't know..." Hinata protested. It would be horribly embarrassing if it turned out to be full of some mystical Hyuuga love potion!

Naruto didn't seem to hear, and soon had the strings undone. Intensely curious herself, Hinata helped him pull the flaps open, and they both stood staring in for a long while; Naruto awestruck, and Hinata shocked.

Naruto was the first to find his voice. "Wh...where did you get all this _ramen_?" he whispered worshipfully.

"W-we're a big clan," Hinata explained, kicking herself inwardly for not thinking of this sooner. "We buy in bulk."

Pulling one of the cups out of the box, Naruto turned to Hinata mischievously. "I bet I can eat more than you can."

[A/N: I just wanted some Hinata practice; although she's adorable she's rather hard to write. While I prefer SasuHina fanfic, I ship NaruHina in canon, if that makes any sense. Hopefully I'll have some updates on the other stories soon. Also, please vote on the poll!]


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